Wednesday, 31 July 2013

Maxi may have been my trademark length for the past 20 years but when it's raining there's nothing worse than a sodden skirt flapping around your ankles. On Saturday I left the camp site in glorious sunshine resplendent in a floor grazing outfit only for the heavens to open hours later ending in an undignified dash back with a Tesco carrier bag on my head, my chappals oozing with mud and a wringing wet skirt tucked in my knickers - classy. A couple of people stopped me to say that only I could carry off a look like that and still look cool but I wasn't entirely convinced.

The last couple of days I haven't taken any chances, it's mini length and boots all the way. I made this psychedelic playsuit for Glasto but never photographed myself wearing it. The vintage fabric was a present from sexalicious Helga and the 1967 pattern came from the super-talented Pao.

After two days of chazzing for England Kinky Melon's stock levels are well and truly boosted - the washing machine's on the third load and the ironing pile is truly terrifying.

Needless to say I couldn't resist snapping up a few bits for myself. Here's what I'm keeping:

It was 5 books for £1 at Forces Support. I think my literary twin must have donated the contents of their bookshelf as I'd already read 75% of the stock.

A 1960s Janice Wainwright for Simon Massey maxi (£12), a 1970s lurex unsigned midi dress in need of some new elastic in the cuff seams (£3.45), a felt hat stuffed with an Express newspaper from 1975 (£1.50) and a gorgeous 1960s vinyl bag with a very Indian looking lurex trim (£1).

At 3 for £1 it would have been madness not to snaffle some vintage vinyl.

Monday, 29 July 2013

Canal boats, VW meets and now music festivals. This weekend Kinky Melons Retro Boutique hit the road and set up shop at Indie Tracks, an annual celebration of all things Indie Pop.

Indietracks is an intimate, non-corporate music festival featuring acts from across the globe. Now in the 7th year & located at the Midland Railway Centre part of the proceeds help fund the museum's conservation.

Possibly the only festival in the world where you can ride a steam train whilst being serenaded by live music.

There's even an old British Rail carriage converted into a real ale bar.

Located in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside with lots of perfectly preserved artefacts from the golden age of steam.

Indie kids are a well behaved bunch. These vintage cases wouldn't stay put for long at your average music festival.

Doesn't that sky look ominous?

Here we are, up and ready for business in the merch* tent.

(*Hipster speak for merchandise, I'm down with the kids now.)

That orange psychedelic 1960s dress was sold within 10 minutes of opening.

Although we're old hands at festival-going being crew is a totally different experience. Ten hour shifts made it pretty much impossible to see any of the music (although we had a prime spot for the live acoustic sets in the marquee) but we did manage to catch Camera Obscura after some particularly vicious lightning forced us to abandon the marquee on Saturday night.

We were on site before the gates opened every day, a festival without revellers is a pretty weird experience.

Best veg pakoras ever!

A fellow crew member - one of the drug dogs

The Chapel Stage

Indietracks is such a quirky festival - there's even an opportunity to pet owls.

A tad dishevelled after a day's work.

So, how did it go? It fecking rocked! Kinky Melon now has the seal of approval from both festival goers & band members alike and Gilbert returned a whole lot lighter. We spent time with some fantastic people and met a few blog readers, too!

It's that shirt again! Jon's shorts started life as old man trousers from a jumble sale & he altered them.

Next time you catch an Indie Pop act in the States, Malaysia, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Spain or the UK there's a good chance they'll be wearing a piece of Kinky Melon vintage.

1960s go-go top (£6.50, Second To None, Walsall), vintage patchwork maxi (£6.19, eBay) and a load of junk, vintage and Indian jewellery

We're knackered, dazed and confused right now. We've just under two weeks before Kinky Melon hits the road again (catch us HERE) so there's a furious fortnight of hunting down stock to replace the heap we've sold but that starts tomorrow. Right now it's a delivery curry, rum and coke in a proper glass, a hot bath and an early night.

Thursday, 25 July 2013

I'm brilliant at distracting myself with silly side projects when there's serious work to be done. Take this week for example, I've made three dresses, gone charity shopping and visited a car boot sale when I should have been organising my Kinky Melon stock ready for trading at Indietracks festival this weekend.

This one's made from a vintage apron, a jumble sale 1960s curtain and some car booted braid.

Which meant that I was running around the house like a nutter before bed last night trying to get everything in order.

The floor at silly o'clock this morning.

Poor Gilbert's groaning at the seams and we haven't even packed any food, booze or our clothes yet.

Thank goodness we've got a trailer.

In fact, I haven't a bastard clue what clothes I'm taking and we're meeting the gang in the pub in less than a hour. Oh well, I'm sure it will all come together in the end (although last time we visited Indie-tracks we left our holdall on the bedroom floor and had to live in our travelling clothes for four days)

What do you think of my show girl waistcoat courtesy of the fabulous Skye? I love this 1970s maxi dress but the jersey bodice is backless and completely transparent (which I didn't realise until after Jon had taken a photo of me out in it last year) so it's ideal for sparing my blushes - not that I'm overly bothered about flashing my boobs but there's a time and a place for everything and Asda at 9am on a Thursday morning ain't it.

Skye's adorable son drew this picture in my honour as he loved my soldier curtain waistcoat so much. It's now pride of place on the fridge, the home of all great art work.

Tuesday, 23 July 2013

I had to pop into town to stock up on some festival essentials for the weekend ahead (wet wipes, anti-bac hand gel and once-a-day sun cream to the uninitiated) and naturally took a detour round the chazzas.

The hospice shop had a huge stash of uncut patterns and being a bit short of halter neck maxis (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) I couldn't resist snapping up this 1971 dress by Style.

Just like the envelope said, it was a snip. I'd cut it out and sewn it up in a couple of hours.

Tamera sent me this amazing 1960s Hawaiian fabric last year and I'd been scared to use it for fear of buggering it up - a 3 piece pattern was ideal.

Although, true to form, Jon pointed out a trailing thread I'd neglected to snip off in my rush to blog.

I've had so many kind words about my recycled creations I thought I'd knock up another, pop it on my stall and test the water so , using a 1980s Aztec printed duvet cover salvaged from my parents' airing cupboard and some vintage braid scored at the car boot sale, I did just that ....trouble is, now it's finished, I think like it too much to part with it!

Still, there's sod all on the telly till Luther (unless you're interested in royalty & babies which I most definitely ain't) so I may as well make another.

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I'm Vix, a jumble sale-ing, car-booting, skip-diving, charity shopping, hedonistic hippy chick in love with life, India and vintage clothes.
In my world getting dressed is always an adventure, never a chore. My style is Woodstock refugee meets Rolling Stones groupie with a bit of vintage Bollywood thrown in. I don't follow fashion and if I look ridiculous so what? Not being noticed and blending in with the crowd is my idea of hell.
A day without dressing up is a day wasted.